By CKPG Today

Cellular service

5 new cell towers activated along Highway of Tears

Dec 30, 2024 | 10:43 AM

PRINCE GEORGE — Good news for those who rely on the Highway of Tears for transportation.

Rogers says its turned on five new cell towers along the route between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

Nine out of 11 promised towers are now complete – delivering 166 kilometres of 5G cell service along the route. The route is 720-kilometres in length.

Once the towers are fully completed, it will fulfill a promise made in the 2006 Highway of Tears Symposium report aimed at improving safety for Indigenous women and girls.

“In 2006, the Highway of Tears Governing Body dreamed of having a communication network between Prince Rupert and Prince George, our vision was simply to build telephone booths along the corridor! We never envisioned that 18 years later, we would be celebrating the substantial completion of the project to provide cell coverage along Highway 16,” said Mary Teegee, a Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) activist. “These are more than just cell towers, they are life lines for the north. I commend Rogers for lighting the way for other corporations to follow along the path to reconciliation.”

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The new towers are part of an ongoing rural wireless service expansion project with the province’s Connecting British Columbia program, administered by Northern Development Initiative Trust, and the federal Universal Broadband Fund.

The Highway 16 project is part of Rogers commitment to expand services to underserved rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in B.C. and across Canada. Rogers has invested over $40 billion in its networks over the last decade and is investing $4 billion in capital investments this year.